2019 Solena Estate Grande Cuvee Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 750 ml

The Willamette Valley Pinot Noir Auction features some of the most exclusive Pinots in America. That’s where Laurent Montalieu told us he “had something for us,” then proceeded to dazzle (and fool) us with his Soléna Estate Grande Cuvée—which we mistook for a Pinot five times the price.

Grande Cuvée is the Pinot that led us to rethink the term “quality-to-price ratio” and start referring to Soléna’s quality-to-price disparity. It’s a wine whose outstanding value has landed it in Wine Spectator’s Top 40, a staggering achievement for a bottle that can be had at this price. And this is the kind of over-delivering Willamette Valley Pinot that fooled us into thinking we were drinking one of Laurent Montalieu’s high-priced custom cuvées. 

Laurent and Danielle Montalieu putting out an outstanding and affordable Pinot Noir isn’t news: Vintage after vintage, their Grande Cuvée has few peers in the value department. Part of this is doubtless because of unparalleled access to top Willamette Valley fruit: Over his three decades in Oregon, Laurent has put together an impressive collection of vineyards, including the 80-acre Soléna estate, Domaine Danielle Laurent in Yamhill-Carlton, and the Hyland Vineyard in McMinnville. These sources guarantee that grapes that would likely compose expensive vineyard-designate Pinots find their way into the Grande Cuvée.

When it comes to “quality, complexity, and price, there is no finer value in the world,” Laurent once told us. He was talking about Willamette Pinot Noir in general, but we think his words describe the Grande Cuvée quite nicely—especially in 2019, the kind of classic Willamette Valley vintage upon which Oregon has built its reputation.